Picturing Books: A Website About Picture Books
At its most basic, a picture book combines words and pictures to tell a story. Text and images work together, a relationship many critics call a marriage or union, to bring a story to new levels. Illustrations can extend the meaning of a story or alter a book altogether. In Rosie's Walk (Simon & Schuster, 1968) by Pat Hutchins there are almost have three stories. One the words tell, one the pictures tell, and the one they tell together. So while a picture book is simply word and pictures, when viewed as a whole it becomes a work of art.